Best Practices for Choosing a Business Intelligence Dashboard

Even if your BI dashboard ends up looking professional and offers beautifully rendered graphs, it won t mean anything unless you have the right data.

Best Practices for Choosing a Business Intelligence Dashboard

How to Choose a Well Designed BI Dashboard Click through for best practices organizations should consider when choosing a business intelligence (BI) dashboard, as identified by Himanshu Sareen, CEO of Icreon Tech.

Best Practices for Choosing a Business Intelligence Dashboard

Strong Visual Representation The first best practice when it comes to BI dashboard design is the bare basics of how you should want your dashboard to be represented visually. First and foremost, a BI dashboard gives you a high-level look into your company s key performance indicators (KPIs) so that you can assess the various goals that matter to your position or business as a whole. That being said, it s a BI tool’s job to aggregate and arrange data so that it s relevant and highly visible to end users who depend on accurate information in order to make high-level decisions that impact a company s welfare.

Best Practices for Choosing a Business Intelligence Dashboard

Strong Visual Representation Let s say that you re a retail company that makes printed shirts. A BI tool would potentially be important for analyzing how many times your company or one of your products is mentioned on social media. Why? Let s also hypothetically say that based on Big Data analysis you know that every 1,000 likes and/or tweets that a particular product receives raises the consumption of that product by 10 percent for as long as its presence is viral on social media. This information would obviously impact how much inventory you need to fulfill the projected increase in orders for the previously mentioned product and essentially a good BI tool should help you connect the dots in real time so that you can take action more quickly.

Best Practices for Choosing a Business Intelligence Dashboard

Strong Visual Representation This is why visual representation is so important when it comes to choosing a dashboard. Not only do you have to choose the most essential KPI s to monitor, but you must choose a dashboard that lets you see the forest through the trees, so to speak. Here s a list of visual properties that a BI tool should be comprised of: It should put key metrics into context so that end users understand the correlating information that can help explain a spike or a dip in performance. The information on a BI dashboard should be dense but not cluttered to the extent that it s difficult to differentiate data points. It should also have a very low learning curve, meaning that graphs and information should be presented in not only an aesthetic way but in a way that is easy for end users to understand even if those end users have a relatively low level of technical background. At the end of the day, remember that any BI dashboard s visual representation is extremely important in terms of user experience, and being able to put heightened information to use depends greatly on users being able to understand the information that s presented to them.

Best Practices for Choosing a Business Intelligence Dashboard

Communicate Information from a Single Screen BI technology is all about being able to communicate the right information at the right time, and being able to compare information easily is a big part of that communication process. That s why your dashboard s most critical information should fit on a single screen. Whether you re analyzing how your business generates leads, or how your national retail campaigns stack up from a regional standpoint, having all the critical information at your fingertips is essential. The following are a couple of good examples of what a dashboard should look like, and the types of disparate information it should contain.

Best Practices for Choosing a Business Intelligence Dashboard

Dashboard Example This example is of a dashboard whose aim is to communicate retail analysis. It breaks down total stores, total sales, and then separates that from new stores (and the sales done in those stores), making it easy to see how well the new sites are developing. It also connects this year s sales to last year s and correlates that information to sales per square foot of store space which would be essential in calculating whether to open/close new stores in the future, and how many should be opened/closed.

Best Practices for Choosing a Business Intelligence Dashboard

Dashboard Example This example offers an executive summary of how a company is performing. It gives detailed information on the company s net income vs. sales, production, and unit shipments. This information would obviously be pertinent for employees such as general managers and is commutable all the way up to the CEO.

Best Practices for Choosing a Business Intelligence Dashboard

Make Sure Any BI Tool Fits Your Needs The last tip for choosing the right BI dashboard has to do with customization. There are plenty of off the shelf BI solutions such as the software that IBM offers, and there are customizable software options such as Yellowfin which will build your BI platform to fit the exact specifications you require. There are myriad reasons for choosing either off the shelf or custom software to fulfill your BI needs, but whichever you choose, make sure that your suite is customizable to your specific needs (in this instance, customizable is synonymous with easy usability meaning that you shouldn t have to ask the IT department every time you want to run a report) and that it can be used unilaterally across departments.

Best Practices for Choosing a Business Intelligence Dashboard

Conclusion Making an investment in BI technology is no small thing for a company as it can be expensive to implement and operate. That s why it s of paramount importance that you take an in-depth look at what design capabilities you require in a dashboard so that it s easy for your workforce to use, and so it has a significant impact on growing your bottom line.

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The demand for skilled data scientists and managers with the ability to use big data to add value to their organizations is growing fast and there s never been a better or more exciting time to pursue a degree in this high-growth field.

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Supplemented by industry supplied projects, HU graduates will be exceptionally well equipped to harness and communicate the full value of data to the organizations they serve. This Harrisburg University master-of-science degree program is a powerful new entrant into the field of data analytics and is critical to developing of the next wave of analytics professionals who will find themselves well-positioned to launch their careers.

Businesses today use data mining and analytics to drive pricing, marketing, R D, finance, operations, logistics, risk management and online activities. Graduates with a Master-of-Science (M.S.) in degree in Analytics from Harrisburg University of Science and Technology will enter the workforce with the skills, confidence and expertise required to succeed in today s information-intensive world.

HU s Master-of-Science in Analytics combines mathematical and statistical study with instruction in advanced computational and data analysis. Students learn to identify patterns and trends; interpret and gain insight from vast quantities of structured and unstructured data; and communicate their findings in practical, useful terms. The program is designed for students with a strong background in mathematics, computer science, engineering or economics who seek the specific techniques and tools involved in analytics and the business skills to apply this knowledge effectively and strategically.

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BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND ANALYTICS

Business Intelligence and Analytics

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Mashable

10 Steps for Successful Social Media Monitoring

Recently I wrote about the differences in social media monitoring and measurement, as well as the importance of doing both.

However, taking the first step to actually start monitoring can be daunting. And then what? How do you act on what you find when listening?

How do you engage? To ensure that you are successful in your monitoring and measurement efforts, here are some definitive steps you should follow.

I’ve developed these throughout my career and as part of my regular listening, participating and contributing to the space.

1. Define an Objective

Why are you monitoring? If the answer is “because everyone’s doing it,” you are in trouble. You need to have a clear goal in mind, such as:

I want to monitor because I want to be alerted immediately when people are saying bad / good things about my brand.

I want to quickly respond to all customer service queries, and I’m going to set up a way to collaborate and exchange information seamlessly with my support team.

I’m monitoring so I can quickly see who is talking about [insert industry keyword] and join the conversation to bring more credibility to my brand.

I’m monitoring so I can keep my finger on the pulse of the market so I can figure out what the market actually needs and then create it.

I’m monitoring so I can easily identify people in need of my product and help them at the point of need.

All of the above, and more!

Having an end goal in mind will help you target your resources correctly, select the right tool for the job and be more effective in the end.

2. Decide Where to Monitor

Social media is relationship and conversation media. At its core is the art of building relationships with others, human-to-human. However, you can’t be everywhere conversing with everyone at the same time. You need to pick your battles. Where you “hang out” digitally, just like any outreach and marketing program, should be driven by where your constituency hangs out. The notion of the social customer should reflect not only your current paying customers, but also potential customers and industry thought leaders. Monitoring can help you figure out where these people are, and therefore what channels are best for you to listen to and engage.

3. Decide What to Monitor

Recall that monitoring is keyword-based, and thus selection of the right keywords is important. At the very least, you should be tracking your company name, brand names, product names, names of key execs, competitor names, competitive product names, industry keywords, and your tagline or most recent marketing efforts (e.g. Did you run a special promotion for Mother’s day?).

4. Prioritize

Social media is voluminous –- conversations are happening across many channels and social networks all over the world. To make matters even more complicated, the signal-to-noise ratio is not in your favor. This is why your monitoring must be intelligent and actionable. You should be triaging all the social media messages that come across your field of vision, so that you can focus on what’s most important. If you work in a large, matrixed organization, you need to separate by product or brand and type of message (service vs. feedback).

5. Develop a Plan

To expand on the previous tip, you need to develop a crisis management plan. Don’t let Nestle’s Facebook Page issues happen to you. You should also develop a plan for engagement in more routine situations. When a blogger raves about your product, how do you turn this goodwill into collaboration that benefits both parties? How do you create customer advocacy programs? How do you internalize and execute on feedback about your (or competitor’s) product? How do you deal with irate customers? What about irate bloggers? You need to think through all these scenarios and figure out how you will activate the right resources within the organization.

6. Involve Others

Social media information is bigger and faster than any other information channel we’ve had before. Here lies the challenge: With the speed of a tweet, how do you tap the right person in the organization to either answer the query or help you answer it? However you disseminate information, you need to think about the following:

How does data flow?

How are people notified that their help is needed? Is this done through e-mail or IM alerts? Push notifications? Dashboards?

How quickly are the right parties notified?

How is the information cascaded?

Are functional experts engaging themselves or funneling the answers through the social media ambassador?

After the interaction happens, how is the customer record updated and shared? How is it related to the rest of the customer record (e-mails, call center notes)?

7. Listen First

Let’s say you did some monitoring and identified a certain community as the place to be. Should you just jump in and start chatting and plugging your product from the get-go? Absolutely not!

Before you ever open your digital mouth, listen and observe the culture of the community, interactions between members, how influence is expressed, and even if there’s a particular vernacular. The community can be private or open, but regardless of where the community “resides,” you need to get to know its members, stakeholders, and community norms.

8. Inbound vs. Outbound Conversations

“Outbound” does not mean screaming your message at the top of your Twitter lungs. Outbound simply means that you are proactively going out there and participating in discussions around your area of expertise. For example, I actively seek out discussions on social media monitoring and Social CRM. among others.

Conversely, “inbound” in the context of monitoring simply means that people are talking directly to you or about you with specific end goals in mind –- they either need help, want to give you feedback, or leave a compliment.

The reason I bring up inbound vs. outbound is because both have distinct rules of engagement. When you are participating in a larger discussion, it’s not usually appropriate to throw out links to your product demo left and right. Just because someone utters a keyword doesn’t mean they want to go to your homepage.

However, when it’s an inbound communication, the user is probably looking for something specific to your company, which makes it more acceptable to share relevant links. There are no hard and fast rules about what’s appropriate, but get a feeling for what feels right after listening first, and just use common sense.

9. Build Relationships

As you identify the spheres of influence and group dynamics in step #7, make sure you are forming relationships with the thought leaders around you. Take a minute to identify influencers and figure out who is driving the conversation.

But be wary of defining influence as a sheer function of reach. After you find these thought leaders, take the time to read them and understand their viewpoints before you ever pitch anything. Growing and nurturing these relationships is the art of any social business. Comment on their blogs, chat with them digitally, get to know them personally and professionally, and meet them in person at a conference. Never go into a conversation asking yourself how useful someone can be to you. When you develop a voice and become a resource for others, people will listen to you and spread your message on the merits of the message. The true definition of influence is when you don’t even have to ask others to do that.

10. Select Tools that Match your Strategy

If you identified Twitter as the area of focus based on your research in step #2, you should select a monitoring tool that’s strong in Twitter. If you want to track conversations in multiple languages, look for that capability. Your checklist of what you need in a tool is going to be largely driven by your purpose definition in step #1. You need to know where you are heading and why, so that you can decide whether you want historical or archivable data, charting and sharing capabilities, advanced analytics, free or premium model, depth of coverage, sentiment analytics, easy integration with existing systems, or whatever else you may need.

It’s not an easy task, so I encourage you to do your homework, ask vendors the tough questions, and never lose sight of your objective.

How do you monitor and engage? What are some best practices you’ve developed? What are some things that worked or didn’t work? Be sure to share your insights in the comments.

Free Business Analytics PowerPoint Template

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Related PowerPoint Templates

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The only conference of its kind, Predictive Analytics World delivers vendor-neutral sessions across verticals such as banking, financial services, e-commerce, entertainment, government, healthcare, manufacturing, high technology, insurance, non-profits, publishing, and retail.

Why bring together such a wide range of endeavors? No matter how you use predictive analytics, the story is the same: Predictively scoring customers, employees, students, voters, patients, equipment, and other organizational elements optimizes performance. Predictive analytics initiatives across industries leverage the same core predictive modeling technology, share similar project overhead and data requirements, and face common process challenges and analytical hurdles.

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